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From: 1 Kings 10:1-10

The Queen of Sheba Visits Solomon

[1] Now when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the
name of the LORD, she came to test him with hard questions. [2] She came to
Jerusalem with a very great retinue, with camels bearing spices, and very much
gold, and precious stones; and when she came to Solomon, she told him all
that was on her mind. [3] And Solomon answered all her questions; there was
nothing hidden from the king which he could not explain to her. [4] And when
the queen of Sheba had seen all the wisdom off Solomon, the house that he
had built, [5] the food of his table, the seating of his officials, and the attendance
of his servants, their clothing, his cupbearers, and his burnt offerings which he
offered at the house of the LORD, there was no more spirit in her.

[6] And she said to the king, “The report was true which I heard in my own land
of your affairs and of your wisdom, [7] but I did not believe the reports until I came
and my own eyes had seen it; and, behold, the half was not told me; your wis-
dom and prosperity surpass the report which I heard. [8] Happy are your wives!”
Happy are these your servants, who continually stand before you and hear your
wisdom! [9] Blessed be the LORD your God, who has delighted in you and set
you on the throne of Israel! Because the LORD loved Israel for ever, he has made
you king, that you may execute justice and righteousness.” [10] Then she gave
the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold, and a very great quantity of spices,
and precious stones; never again came such an abundance of spices as these
which the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.

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Commentary:

10:1-13. This queen, made famous by her entry in the Bible, came from Ethiopia,
if that is where traditional Sheba was (cf. Gen 10:7), or from the south-west of
the Arabian peninsula, which is where archaeologists tell us the kingdom of She-
ba was, or even (and which is more likely) from some settlement to the north of
Arabia and closer to Israel (cf. Gen 25:3; Job 1:15).

This visit stayed in Israel’s memory as a symbol of what would happen some
time in the future when the messianic king would appear (cf. Ps 72:10, 15) and
when Jerusalem, revived by God, would recover its place among the nations (cf.
Is 45:14; 60:6-7). With a broader perspective St Matthew sees all that as being
fulfilled in the coming of the wise men to place their gifts at the feet of the child
Jesus (cf. Mt 2:11). And Jesus himself will exalt that queen and, recalling the
long journey she made to hear the wisdom of Solomon, will condemn those
Jews of his own generation who failed to listen to his teaching even though he
was greater than Solomon (cf. Mt 12:42; Lk 11:31), because he was the very
wisdom of God (cf. 1 Cor 1:24).

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.

From: Mark 7:14-23

What Defiles a Man

[14] And [Jesus] called the people to meet Him, and said to them, “Hear Me, all
of you, and understand: [15] there is nothing outside a man which by going into
him can defile him; but the things that come out of a man are what defile him.”
[17] And when He had entered the house, and left the people, His disciples asked
Him about the parable. [18] And He said to them, “Then are you also without un-
derstanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a man from outside cannot
defile him, [19] since it enters, not his heart but his stomach, and so passes on?”
(Thus He declared all foods clean.) [20] And He said, “What comes out of a man
is what defiles a man. [21] For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil
thoughts, fornication, theft, murder, adultery, [22] coveting, wickedness, deceit,
licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. [23] All these evil things come
from within, and they defile a man.

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Commentary:

15. Some important codices add here: “If any man has ears to hear, let him
hear,” which would form verse 16.

18-19. We know from Tradition that St. Mark was the interpreter of St. Peter and
that, in writing his Gospel under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he gathered up
the Roman catechesis of the head of the Apostles.

The vision which St. Peter had in Joppa (Acts 10:10-16) showed him the full
depth of what Jesus teaches here about food. When he returns to Jerusalem, St.
Peter himself tells us this in his report on the conversion of Cornelius: “I remem-
bered the word of the Lord” (Acts 11:16). The now non-obligatory character of
such prescriptions laid down by God in the Old Testament (cf. Leviticus 11)
would have been something St. Peter included in his preaching. For interpreta-
tion of this text cf. also note on Matthew 15:10-20.

[Note on Matthew 15:10-20 states:

10-20. Our Lord proclaims the true meaning of moral precepts and makes it
clear that man has to answer to God for his actions. The scribes’ mistake con-
sisted in concentrating on externals and not giving pride of place to interior puri-
ty of heart. For example they saw prayer in terms of exact recital of fixed forms
of words rather than as a raising of the soul to God (cf. Matthew 6:5-6). The
same thing happened in the case of dietary regulations.

Jesus avails Himself of the particular cases dealt with in this passage to teach
us where to find the true center of moral action: it lies in man’s personal deci-
sion, good or evil, a decision which is shaped in his heart and which then is ex-
pressed in the form of action. For example, the sins which our Lord lists are
sins committed in the human heart prior to being acted out. In the Sermon on
the Mount He already said this: “Every one who looks at a woman lustfully has
already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28).]

20-23. “In order to help us understand divine things, Scripture uses the expres-
sion ‘heart’ in its full meaning, as the summary and source, expression and ulti-
mate basis, of one’s thoughts, words and actions” (St. J. Escriva, “Christ Is
Passing By”, 164).

The goodness or malice, the moral quality, of our actions does not depend on
their spontaneous, instinctive character. The Lord Himself tells us that sinful ac-
tions can come from the human heart.

We can understand how this can happen if we realize that, after original sin, man
“was changed for the worse” in both body and soul and was, therefore, prone to
evil (cf. Council of Trent, “De Peccato Originali”). Our Lord here restores morality
in all its purity and intensity.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States